Anyone watch Mr Bates vs The Post Office ?

[Darrell]

Amen. But let's not go into the mob nonsense of ICL's latest failure made public.

British Computer companies on Government contracts.....? Nightmare !

(But don't mention that to people blaming "Fujitsu" for the implementation muck up by British IT "professionals" at the British Post Office.

Who or what is ICL?

 

[del320]

ICL

Here

 

[poormansporsche]

I probably deserve a smack but .......

On a recent trip to Halfords they got a extremely short, exceptionally rude worker from out the back to change the headlight bulb on my Clio. He was rude to me, slagged off my car, complained about this part of his job. I think he must have been tied up in a box and only brought him out for moronically designed french £hitheaps considering how angry he was. Small man syndrome probably.

I know I shouldn't have but i just couldn't help myself, chance of a lifetime. Despite it going above her head, I turned and said to Red Sonia on the till

"Oooo he's a angry Elf"

Please continue

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Who or what is ICL?

British Computer company created by the Labour government in 1968. Basket case sold to Fujitsu in 2002, three years after the Horizon go live.

Essentially a traditional hardware company but sold an awful lot of ... awful...software to Government contracts.

The usual Xenophobic nonsense of the old IT industry - globally. (IBM, Microsoft and Intel were built on US Government contracts). Could be worse, it wasn't French, Italian, or Spanish.

ICL got the Post Office contract because it was British. Not competent. It sold out to Fujitsu after Horizon went live.

But don't tell the Parliamentary committee, they're too busy scoring political points around a mucked up implementation.

"Software shouldn't have bugs, and accounting systems shouldn't have breaks." Yeah, whatever....

The essence of Engineering and IT is about identifying and resolving bugs in a systematic, structured after the first few attempts. No-one, but no-one gets it right first time.

 

[Darrell]

I probably deserve a smack but .......

On a recent trip to Halfords they got a extremely short, exceptionally rude worker from out the back to change the headlight bulb on my Clio. He was rude to me, slagged off my car, complained about this part of his job. I think he must have been tied up in a box and only brought him out for moronically designed french £hitheaps considering how angry he was. Small man syndrome probably.

I know I shouldn't have but i just couldn't help myself, chance of a lifetime. Despite it going above her head, I turned and said to Red Sonia on the till

"Oooo he's a angry Elf"

Please continue

Should’ve followed it up with “did he fall off the shelf”?

 

[Dryce]

British Computer company created by the Labour government in 1968. Basket case sold to Fujitsu in 2002, three years after the Horizon go live.

The ownership and control by Fujitsu goes back a good deal further back - effectively to 1990.

The brand disappeared in 2002.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

The ownership and control by Fujitsu goes back a good deal further back - effectively to 1990.

The brand disappeared in 2002.

Duh, you’re right, of course, 80% ownership from 1990. I’m just remembering that ICL was still perceived as being “an English company” through the 1990’s when it got those Government PFI contracts. Which, to be fair, it still was, with predominantly British staff.

 

[Gollom]

Duh, you’re right, of course, 80% ownership from 1990. I’m just remembering that ICL was still perceived as being “an English company” through the 1990’s when it got those Government PFI contracts. Which, to be fair, it still was, with predominantly British staff.

Just a light hearted interjection here. I was in IT during the Nineties & Noughties. The company names actually stood for.

ICL - It'll Come Later
IBM - It'll Be Back Monday
VME - Very Messy Engineering
DEC - Disastrous Engineering Completely
SUN - Surely Unreal Notion

I'm sure there were more!

 

[SpikyMikey]

Just a light hearted interjection here. I was in IT during the Nineties & Noughties. The company names actually stood for.

ICL - It'll Come Later
IBM - It'll Be Back Monday
VME - Very Messy Engineering
DEC - Disastrous Engineering Completely
SUN - Surely Unreal Notion

I'm sure there were more!

That takes me back; when I was a manic courier, I did a few overnight runs to Sun Microsystems in Linlithgow. Good little earners they were.

 

[st13phil]

Just a light hearted interjection here. I was in IT during the Nineties & Noughties. The company names actually stood for.

ICL - It'll Come Later
IBM - It'll Be Back Monday
VME - Very Messy Engineering
DEC - Disastrous Engineering Completely
SUN - Surely Unreal Notion

I'm sure there were more!

A few things from the world of IBM:

• The Operating System known as MVS (Multiple Virtual Storage) was better titled as Mankind Versus System
• IBM actually pioneered the legend "This page is intentionally left blank" in their documentation (yes, really, that is true)
• IBM was famous for using Three Letter Acronyms (TLA's) for their hardware parts. Probably their most redundant use of a TLA was their "AMD" which stood for "Air Movement Device", otherwise known as a Fan

 

[Dryce]

• IBM actually pioneered the legend "This page is intentionally left blank" in their documentation (yes, really, that is true)

I've heard this mentioned recently - but I'm fairly sure it's not true.

It's also a bit verbal for IBM - if they were the origin it would have more likely been along the lines of something more terse - eg..

Intentionally Blank Page​

Page Intentionally Blank​

Specified Empty Page​

Page without Content​

​

Possibly more cryptic​

​

Authored Vertical Space​

​

​

 

[st13phil]

Intentionally Blank Page

An IBP?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

An IBP?

Later changed to PIB

 

[flying haggis]

 

[SpikyMikey]

View attachment 151848

Good old Matt.
Brilliant as usual

 

[Harrythedog]

I see Teflon Tony and Gun for Hire Mandelson have been dragged into it

Tony Blair was warned Horizon IT system could be flawed, documents show Tony Blair was warned Horizon IT system could be flawed, documents show

 

[Dippo]

If you've ever worked in the Middle East, IBM was always "Insh'allah, Bukra, Maleesh" which basically means Allah willing, tomorrow or sometime, never mind.

 

[pmcgsmurf]

Just a light hearted interjection here. I was in IT during the Nineties & Noughties. The company names actually stood for.

ICL - It'll Come Later
IBM - It'll Be Back Monday
VME - Very Messy Engineering
DEC - Disastrous Engineering Completely
SUN - Surely Unreal Notion

I'm sure there were more!

ITT - It Takes Time

 

[T5R+]

ITT - It Takes Time

The IT crowd have some great acronyms. My personal favourite is a "PICNIC error".

Problem In Chair Not In Computer.

"Old but gold".

 

[flying haggis]